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Land-use policies contribute to GTA’s housing shortage

A new report by Fortress Real Developments, a BILD member, suggests that there is a disconnect between Ontario’s land-use policies and demand in the GTA’s housing market.

This new report’s findings echo what I’ve been saying in these columns, and elsewhere, for years.

In a social media survey, 36 per cent of respondents said they would be willing to drive an hour each way to work if they could live in a suburban townhouse with a backyard, rather than in a downtown condo apartment with a five-minute commute to work. (Dreamstime)

The Ontario government directs growth to locations and built forms that don’t align with public demand, resulting in insufficient housing supply and skewed housing values in the GTA, the fall 2017 Market Manuscript says. In the report, Fortress compiled responses from a survey of 53 urban planners in Ontario, including those who work for government and those in industry.

Fifty-six per cent of the urban planners surveyed believe that Ontario’s “urban containment policies,” such as the Places to Grow Act and the Greenbelt Act, contribute to the growth of new-home prices in the GTA. Legislation cannot change “long-held preferences” in the type of home that people want, the report points out. Single-family housing continues to be more desirable than condominium apartments, especially for families, Fortress notes.

In a social media survey of the public that the company conducted, 36 per cent of respondents said they would be willing to drive an hour each way to work if they could live in a suburban townhouse with a backyard, rather than in a downtown condo apartment with a five-minute commute to work.

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Many people are doing just that, the report suggests, pointing out there were 6,000 more lowrise sales in the Greater Golden Horseshoe outside the GTA last year than there were in 2014. The majority of the buyers are likely people from the GTA who now commute considerable distances to work, the report says.

When Fortress asked urban planners what factors they thought were impeding the building of ground-oriented housing in the GTA, 40 per cent of respondents said “provincial land-use policies” and “intensification targets that don’t align with demand.” Forty-two per cent of those surveyed also said “no servicing allocation” is one of the factors that hold up new lowrise developments. That means that land where new housing could be built is not serviced with critical infrastructure such as water, waste water and hydro.

This finding echoes what BILD has long said about the lack of serviced and developable land in the GTA. In some cases, water and sewer servicing won’t be in place for at least another decade.

In the survey, Fortress also asked planners about options for improving housing affordability in the GTA — 54 per cent of the planners surveyed felt that permitting “missing middle” housing, such as duplexes, fourplexes and stacked towns, in stable lowrise neighbourhoods, is the change that would have the biggest positive impact on housing affordability. Some 40 per cent said permitting eight- to 12-storey buildings on avenues and arterial roads would have the biggest positive impact.

The problem, as we have often pointed out, is that many neighbourhoods and municipalities in the GTA are not zoned for this kind of intensification. That is why we have been urging the province to require municipal governments to update their zoning bylaws to allow denser housing forms.

The report from Fortress Real Developments reinforces the need for all of us — the province, municipalities, the industry and the public — to work together to address the housing supply and affordability crisis in the GTA.

Bryan Tuckey is president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) and is a land-use planner who has worked for municipal, regional and provincial governments. Find him at twitter.com/bildgta , facebook.com/bildgta and bildblogs.ca.

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